Latest Spinal Tap

Harry Shearer, better known as the voice of Monty Burns on The Simpsons, is—on occasion—a member of Spinal Tap. Recently, Shearer—who plays Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls—performed a jazzy version of Spinal Tap's beloved holiday favorite, "Christmas with the Devil," with his wife, Judith Owen.

This is Spinal Tap was supposed to be a satirical peek into the decadent, self-contained world of early Eighties heavy metal -- at least as it applied to a group of aging rock stars. At some point, though, the movie transitioned from cult comedy to cultural institution (In 2002, the Library of Congress selected This Is Spinal Tap for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as a "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" film).

At the conclusion of This Is Spinal Tap, director Marty DiBergi's warts-and-all (or, as David St. Hubbins puts it, "all warts") documentary of the metal pioneers' 1982 American tour, the band's future couldn't have looked brighter.